Snowe: The Senate Is No Longer What the Founders Envisioned

The retiring Maine senator says she'll work to restore the Senate from the outside.

By National Journal Staff

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Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In an op-ed article published Thursday on the Washington Post website, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, details the factors that led her to announce this week that she won’t run for reelection in November.

The institution, she said, “is not living up to what the Founding Fathers envisioned.” The Senate is supposed to be an “institutional check that ensures all voices are heard and considered,” but it is not “living up to its billing,” Snowe writes. She criticizes the Senate for brinksmanship and says each party works to block the other, instead of working together.

“I do not believe that, in the near term, the Senate can correct itself from within … [but] I look forward to helping the country raise those voices to support the Senate returning to its deserved status and stature — but from outside the institution,” Snowe concludes.